PAM. 

SERMt 


“©he  Jlht#  and  the  JRfe. 


BY 


§Uv.  William  Utaget*  pchatite,  §.§. 


ANNUAL  SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 


flraepisaFi  Seamen's  Friend  SeeiefeY, 


AT  ITS 


EIGHTIETH  ANNIVERSARY, 


Sunday,  October  4,  1908, 


BY  THE 

Rev.  WILLIAM  ROGERS  RICHARDS,  D.D. 

IN  THE 

BRICK  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


AMERICAN  SEAMEN’S  FRIEND  SOCIETY, 

76  WALL  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 

» 


1908. 


J 


“Sh*  £hi|j  and  the  pfe.” 


“ And  now  I exhort  you  to  be  of  good  cheer;  for  there  shall  be  no  loss  of  any 
man’s  life  among  you,  but  of  the  ship.” — Acts  xxvii:  22. 

What  a strange  estimate  of  values  that  was,  that  one  man  should 
be  held  worth  so  much  more  than  the  whole  ship ; for  the  ship,  it  ap- 
pears, was  to  be  lost ; but  the  promise  is  that  the  man  shall  be  saved; 
therefore  “be  of  good  cheer.”  That  was  the  speaker’s  estimate  ; did 
all  his  hearers  accept  the  same  estimate,  I wonder  ? 

It  was  a great  corn  ship  bound  for  Rome ; ship  of  a thousand  tons 
burden,  very  likely,  and  bearing  a precious  cargo  of  wheat  for  that 
hungry  population.  As  they  were  sailing  along  the  southern  shore 
of  Crete,  a fierce  storm  had  fallen  upon  them ; and  under  its  violence 
they  had  now  been  drifting  westward  for  many  days,  the  great  ship 
leaking  worse  and  worse,  till  hope  of  escape  was  nearly  gone.  Be- 
sides the  cargo  of  wheat  the  ship  carried  men,  some  two  hundred  and 
seventy-six  of  them,  different  sorts  of  men ; the  owner  himself  was 
on  board,  the  master,  and  the  sailors,  a centurion  and  company  of 
soldiers  ; and  besides  these  some  prisoners  bound  for  Rome. 

It  was  one  of  these  prisoners  who  spoke  the  words  that  I have  taken 
for  a text  ; and  I am  wondering  how  far  his  estimate  of  values  com- 
mended itself  to  his  various  fellow-voyagers.  “ Sirs,  I exhort  you 
to  be  of  good  cheer ; for  there  shall  be  no  loss  of  any  man’s  life 
among  you,  but  of  the  ship.”  In  other  words,  the  ship  and  all  the  pre- 
cious cargo  in  it  were  not  to  be  compared  in  value  with  one  human 
life. 

That  was  how  this  prisoner  Paul  viewed  the  matter ; for  if  it  had 
been  the  other  way,  if  it  had  been  a man’s  life  that  was  to  be  lost 
and  the  ship  saved,  that  had  been  another  story  ; — one  man’s  life  lost, 
and  the  ship  saved ; one  poor  fellow  slipping  overboard,  struggling 
in  the  waves,  crying  pitifully  for  help,  drifting  astern,  gone.  If 
Paul  had  been  looking  on  at  such  a spectacle  you  would  not  have 
heard  him  saying,  “ Be  of  good  cheer,  sirs,  for  only  a life  is  lost,  and 


4 


the  ship  is  safe.”  Why,  no  ; I think  we  should  have  seen  him  rather 
rushing  to  the  rail  gazing  after  the  poor  wretch,  throwing  out  to  him 
anything  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  that  might  keep  him  afloat ; and 
shouting  to  the  pilot  to  come  about  and  lower  the  boat ; himself 
jumping  into  the  sea,  if  he  knew  how  to  swim  ; anything  to  save  that 
one  imperiled  life.  And  if  all  failed,  and  if  now  all  hope  of  saving 
him  had  gone,  if  the  man  had  sunk  finally  out  of  sight,  then  the 
rest  of  the  day  would  have  been  darkened,  I think,  for  this  Christian 
Paul.  But  when  it  was  only  the  ship  that  was  to  be  lost,  while  every 
soul  on  her  would  bo  saved  ; — that  kind  of  loss  would  not  trouble  his 
appetite  much,  or  his  sleep  either.  “ Be  of  good  cheer,  sirs,”  he 
cries.  Eow  I say,  I wonder  how  far  Paul’s  fellow-voyagers  agreed 
with  this  view  of  the  subject.  The  owner  of  the  ship,  for  instance. 
This  would  be  strange  doctrine  for  him.  “ Good  cheer,  sir,  not  a 
soul  lost,  only  the  ship.”  “ Only  the  ship,  but  that  is  all  I have  in 
the  world.  To  lose  my  ship  will  leave  me  beggared  ; and  all  this  pre- 
cious cargo  of  wheat  that  was  to  make  my  everlasting  fortune  in 
hungry  Home — all  of  it  sunk  ; and  the  fool  tells  me  to  be  of  good 
cheer  because  a lot  of  good-for-nothing  sailors  and  prisoners  get  safe 
ashore.  Every  soul  of  them  might  go  to  the  bottom,  and  welcome, 
if  only  I could  save  my  ship.”  I strongly  suspect  that  was  the  own- 
er’s view  of  the  matter.  Paul’s  doctrine  would  be  strange  doctrine 
to  him. 

And  the  sailors — well  we  know  how  they  felt  about  it.  For  they 
tried  to  make  off  in  the  night  in  the  lifeboat,  and  leave  ship,  and 
owner,  and  soldiers,  and  prisoners,  and  every  other  soul  on  board  to 
go  to  the  bottom  together.  That  was  the  doctriae  of  this  particular 
crew  of  sailors — they  cared  not  much  for  men’s  lives,  unless  it  hap- 
pened to  be  their  own. 

And  the  soldiers  ? Well,  we  know  that  when  the  ship  was  beached 
a few  hours  later,  and  began  to  break  up  in  the  surf,  the  soldiers 
proposed  killing  all  the  prisoners  lest  some  of  them  escape.  Accord- 
ing to  the  soldiers’  doctrine  a man,  as  such,  was  worth  very  little.  It 
would  have  soemod  to  those  soldiers  the  height  of  absurdity  to  sug- 
gest that  one  friendless  prisoner  might  be  worth  moro  than  the  whole 
Bhip.  I doubt  whether  Paul  would  have  found  many  subscribers  to 
his  novel  creed  in  that  ship’s  company. 

Suppose  some  pleasant  day  with  fair  wind  blowing,  everything 
drawing,  ship  holding  her  course,  some  luckless  passenger  had  slip- 


5 


ped  and  gone  over,  and  a big  shark  following  in  the  wake  had  snap- 
ped him  up — why,  those  soldiers  would  hardly  have  stopped  the  throw- 
ing of  their  dice  long  enough  to  look  over  and  see  what  became  of 
him.  The  man  at  the  helm  gives  one  quick  glance  astern  when  he 
hears  the  splash  and  then  turns  his  eyes  forward  again  to  the  sail. 
“ Only  a worthless  prisoner  smne.  The  ship  is  safe,  thank  Jove.  One 
life  does  not  count.”  But  to  lose  the  ship  and  her  cargo,  and  all 
their  own  personal  effects  ; to  be  spilled  into  the  surf,  and  washed  up 
half  drowned  on  the  beach,  and  pulled  ashore  by  a lot  of  barbarians  ; 
and  spend  the  winter  storm-bound  on  a little  island.  What  sort  of  a 
prospect  was  that  ? I doubt  whether  there  was  another  soul  on  board 
— unless  two  or  three  of  Paul’s  fellow-Christians — who  felt  and  be- 
lieved, as  he  felt  and  believed,  that  the  humblest  human  life  was 
worth  more  than  the  biggest  ship  and  the  richost  cargo. 

That  would  have  been  strange  doctrine  anywhere  in  that  First  Cen- 
tury, afloat  or  ashore.  Human  life  was  cheap  in  those  days.  An 
army  would  march  over  the  enemy’s  country  and  massacre  the  whole 
population,  if  it  served  their  purpose.  One  baby  more  or  less  did  not 
count  for  much  in  their  estimate  of  values.  Or  if  it  served  their  pur- 
pose better,  they  would  sell  the  whole  population  into  slavery  for  so 
much  gold. 

It  seemed  quite  right  to  a Roman  of  those  days  that  a troop  of 
prisoners,  or  of  gladiators,  should  be  sot  hacking  each  other  to  pieces 
in  the  arena,  to  amuse  the  crowd  on  a holiday.  It  was  a cheap  show, 
fit  for  a public  holiday.  So  this  was  strange  doctrine  then  anywhere 
afloat  or  ashore,  to  say  that  human  life  was  the  one  most  precious 
commodity  in  the  world,  the  one  priceless  commodity — any  human 
life,  every  human  life,  “ Jew  or  Greek,  male  or  female,  barbarian, 
Scythian,  bond  or  free,” — that  every  such  life  was  worthy  of  a king’s 
ransom.  Strange  doctrine,  in  that  First  Century  of  the  Christian 
Era ; but  it  was  the  Christian  doctrine ; and  Paul,  since  he  became 
a Christian,  had  been  mastering  that  doctrine,  and  now  this  was  the 
doctrine  that  he  was  always  announcing  and  commending  to  his 
neighbors  ; — as  when  once  he  said  : “ Destroy  not  by  thy  meat  him 
for  whom  Christ  died  ” ; or  here  in  the  storm  when  he  cries  : “ Good 
cheer,  the  big  ship  is  doomed,  but  every  life  shall  be  saved.” 

This  Christian  doctrine  concerning  the  value  of  human  life  was  not 
mastered  at  once  even  by  all  who  called  themselves  Christians.  In 
later  days  armies  of  soldiers  marching  under  the  cross  have  some- 


times  behaved  chemselves  as  unchnstianiy  as  any  of  the  old  legions 
of  Rome.  Not  many  generations  ago  in  Christian  England  herself  I 
seem  to  have  read  how  a mother  might  be  hanged  who  had  snatched 
a loaf  of  bread  for  her  starving  child.  “ 0 God,  that  bread  should 
be  so  dear,  and  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap.”  In  the  past  I think  it 
must  be  confessed  that  much  of  our  legislation,  even  in  Christendom, 
has  been  shaped  with  reference  to  the  saving  of  the  ship,  irrespective 
of  what  becomes  of  the  human  lives. 

Indeed,  is  your  own  conscience  quite  easy  as  to  your  own  personal 
attitude  toward  this  question  in  some  of  its  applications  ? Put  your- 
self in  the  place  of  the  owner  of  Paul’s  ship  ; could  you  have  cheer- 
fully let  the  craft  go  to  the  bottom  rather  than  sacrifice  the  life  of 
one  of  the  prisoners.  Or  even  put  yourself  in  the  place  of  one  of  the 
passengers  on  that  ship— could  you  have  cheerfully  let  the  craft  go 
to  the  bottom,  carrying  all  your  baggage  with  it,  breaking  up  your 
own  plans  for  the  year,  imprisoning  you  for  a dreary  winter  on  a 
wretched  island,  rather  than  sacrifice  the  life  of  one  poor  prisoner  or 
sailor. 

Or  suppose  the  ship  were  a railroad  company  or  manufactory,  and 
you  a stockholder  in  it,  which  do  you  care  mo3t  about,  the  size  of 
your  own  dividends,  or  the  life  of  some  brakeman  coupling  a train 
of  freight  cars ; or  the  effect  of  the  factory  work  on  the  lives  of  the 
men  and  women  at  work  in  it.  Tiie  world  has  been  slow  in  master- 
ing this  great  Christian  doctrine  which  Paul  proclaimed  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago  so  clearly  that  it  could  be  heard  above  the  roar  of 
the  storm  concerning  the  relative  value  of  ships  and  of  men,  of  hu- 
man property  and  human  lives.  Wo  confess  that  we  have  not  mast- 
ered it  yet. 

No  ; but  at  least  we  do  begin  to  recognize  it  as  the  doctrine  that 
will  have  to  be  mastered.  We  do  begin  to  grow  uneasy  and  ashamed 
at  our  stupidity  over  this  groat  losson  ; and  that  it  is  something  to  be 
thankful  for.  If  we  are  far  from  knowing  tho  losson  yet,  we  begin  at 
least  to  suspect  that  neither  the  tendencies  of  society  about  us,  nor 
the  consciences  that  God  has  put  within  us,  will  over  leave  us  at  peace 
until  that  great  lesson  has  been  learned.  I refuse  to  speak  on  this 
subject  to-day  in  tho  tones  of  a pessimist.  However  the  old  darkness 
still  surrounds  and  covers  us,  yet  tho  world  is  looking  toward  tho 
light,  and  moving  toward  the  light.  For  we  do  begin  to  feel  the  dig- 
nity and  sacrednoss  of  men  over  ship3  ; of  human  livos  over  material 


7 


things.  Civilized  society  can  no  longer  tolerate  the  selling  of  men 
or  women  for  gold.  A Roman  Senator  could  calmly  pay  his  admission 
and  go  in  with  entire  self-respect  to  watch  mon  kill  each  other  in  the 
arena  for  the  public  amusement ; — a Roman  Senator  could  ; a United 
States  Senator  could  not.  Whether  or  not  the  instruction  comes  from 
mon  who  call  themselves  Christians — it  may  come  from  men  who  re- 
pudiate that  title  ; it  may  come  from  labor  organizations,  it  may  come 
from  some  radical  leader  of  social  discontent;  but  the  instruction  is 
coming,  and  in  such  a way  that  we  cannot  close  our  ears  to  it,  that 
man’s  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  things  that  he  pos- 
sessed, but  rather  in  certain  qualities  inherent  in  the  man  himself  ; 
in  other  words,  that  the  vital  interests  of  this  world  always  claim 
precedence  over  any  kind  of  property  intorest3 ; that  “the  valuo  of 
property  itself,  as  many  are  now  insisting,  must  be  reckoned  in  terms 
of  the  human  industry  and  human  devotion  that  have  gone  into  it, 
and  then  of  the  vital  human  betterment  that  may  be  got  out  of  it ; ” — 
this  last  is  a free  quotation  from  Karl  Marx,  but,  wherever  it  comes 
from,  it  is  good  Christian  doctrine ; — in  short,  that  living  mon  be- 
long on  a plane  of  worth  altogether  above  that  of  dead  things  ; that 
the  value  of  the  ship  is  not  to  be  named  in  the  same  breath  with  that 
of  the  lives.  That  is  the  groat  Christian  principle — Paul’s  principle, 
which  he  had  learned  from  Jesus  Christ.  And  though  few  have  mast- 
ered the  principle  yet,  though  many  have  barely  made  a start  at  ac- 
quiescing in  it,  yet  the  whole  world  begins  to  suspect  that  the  prin- 
ciple is  sound,  and  that  some  day  it  will  have  to  be  written  large  into 
all  the  laws  of  nations  and  all  the  creeds  and  customs  of  men. 

I am  determined  this  morning  to  speak  on  this  entire  subject  hope- 
fully. I am  glad  to  adopt  the  very  phrase  of  the  apostle  and  cry, 
“ Sirs,  be  of  good  cheer.”  The  signs  about  us  are  so  many  that 
the  day  is  breaking,  the  day  of  man’s  enfranchisement.  Have  you 
ever  interested  yourself  at  all  in  the  wide-spread  agitation  against 
child  labor,  for  instance,  or  any  of  the  other  reforms  of  the  hour 
which  are  aimed  against  the  tyranny  of  property  interest  over  human 
interests  ? The  world’s  property,  it  is  true,  goes  on  swelling ; we 
have  bigger  ships  to-day  than  any  Roman  sailor  ever  dreamed  of. 
But  we  begin  to  see  that  all  this  property  ought  to  be  made  to  keep 
its  place.  Let  me  recall  a single  incident  reported  in  our  newspapers 
— perhaps  a year  ago — how  a great  liner  was  crossing  the  Atlantio, 
her  cabins  full  of  passengers,  all  impatient  to  see  the  end  of  their 


8 

journey.  How  she  carried  mail  on  the  prompt  delivery  of  which  de- 
pended the  business  interests  of  two  continents.  But  one  day  in 
mid-ocean  it  became  known  that  far  down  in  the  hold  of  this  Bhip 
one  poor  stoker  had  been  stricken  with  a disease  of  which  some  of  us 
know  the  terror ; and  that  nothing  could  save  him  but  an  immediate 
operation  ; and  that  the  surgeon  reported  that  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  attempt  the  task  while  the  vessel  wa3  quivering  under  the 
blows  of  the  great  engine  that  was  driving  her  through  the  waves ; 
and  how  by  the  command  of  the  captain,  and  with  the  cheerful  ac- 
quiescence of  very  soul  on  board,  that  great  engine  stopped  ; and  the 
swift  liner  stood  still  in  mid-ocean,  and  the  commercial  interests  of 
two  continents  might  wait  for  one  full  hour,  while  skilful  brain  and 
fingers  were  utilizing  the  latest  attainments  of  surgical  science  to 
save  the  life  of  that  one  nameless  shoveler  of  coal.  Oh,  if  Paul  had 
sailed  as  passenger  on  that  ship,  nobody  need  urge  him  to  be  of  good 
cheer ; you  could  not  suppress  his  exultation,  for  he  would  see  his 
own  great  doctrine  getting  itself  established  at  last,  that  the  man’s 
life  counts  for  more  than  the  ship. 

Wo  come  together  in  this  place  to-day  to  thank  God  for  another 
and  still  more  significant  token  of  the  triumph  of  the  same  great 
Christian  principle.  Eighty  years  ago  there  was  organized  in  this 
city  a society  of  men  deeply  interested  in  the  shipping  of  the  world. 
There  had  been  other  societies  already  in  existence  that  were  inter- 
ested in  the  shipping  of  the  world,  and  in  various  ways,  whether  as 
builders,  or  owners,  or  insurers,  or  as  exporters  or  importers  of  goods  ; 
— useful  societies,  many  of  them,  essential  in  their  way  ; but  all  these 
had  been  apt  to  concern  themselves  mostly  with  the  value  of  the  ship, 
or  else  with  the  value  of  the  material  cargo  of  the  ship.  The  society 
organized  here  eighty  years  ago  proposed  to  concern  itself  more  es- 
pecially with  the  value  of  the  lives.  In  its  view  the  men  who  man- 
ned the  ship  constituted  the  one  highest  interest.  This  society  came 
into  boing  under  the  constraint  of  Paul’s  doctrine  that,  when  all  is 

[said,  it  remains  true  that  the  highest  interest  of  the  ship  is  not  the 
ship  itself,  but  rather  the  life ; the  living  man  in  the  ship.  That 
view  of  the  subject  had  been  generally  overlooked.  There  had  been 
ways  of  insuring  the  ship  or  its  cargo,  but  for  a long  time  no  one 
seemed  to  have  thought  to  inquire  how  they  should  insure  the  ship- 
men.  Here  was  an  organization  which  would  make  that  its  one  aim,  for 
eighty  years  ago,  in  the  year  1828,  was  organized  a body  which  named 


I 


9 


itself  the  “ American  Seamen's  Friend  Society,”  friend  of  the 
men  of  the  sea. 

I ought  to  say,  however,  that  that  date  and  that  organization  do 
not  mark  quite  the  earliest  beginnings  of  the  movement  which  we  cel- 
ebrate. Let  me  read  you  a sentence  or  two  from  certain  reports  of 
the  Society  itself  which  have  been  kindly  put  into  my  hands.  “ In 
the  summer  of  1816,”  (twelve  years  earlier  than  1828)  “some  of  the 
members  of  the  Brick  Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York  City  (the 
Rev.  Gardiner  Spring’s)  were  in  the  habit  of  holding  prayer  meetings 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  city  in  the  hope  of  benefiting  such  classes  of 
the  population  as  did  not  frequent  public  worship.  Some  of  these 
meetings  in  Water  Street  were  attended  by  a few  sailors  and  by  other 
persons  connected  with  the  shipping.  This  suggested  the  idea  of  ap- 
pointing a specific  meeting  for  seamen  ; and  the  first  one  of  the  kind 
was  held  in  a house  then  standing  at  the  corner  of  Front  Street  and 
Old  Slip.  The  meeting  was  successful  and  was  followed  by  others 
of  a similar  character  which  awakened  a considerable  interest,  and 
led  to  a participation  therein  by  Christians  of  other  churches  and  de- 
nominations.” 

That  was  in  1816.  Two  years  later,  in  1818,  the  movement  re- 
sulted in  the  formation  of  the  New  York  Port  Society,  which  still 
carries  on  its  beneficent  work.  Ten  years  later,  in  further  develop- 
ment of  the  same  movement,  was  formed  the  American  Seamen’s 
Friend  Society.  The  Brick  Church  esteems  it  an  honor  to  have 
had  even  thus  much  to  do  with  the  first  starting  of  the  movement ; 
and  counts  it  a privilege  to  participate  in  the  present  anniversary. 

I must  not  detain  you  at  this  time  for  any  rehearsal  of  the  details 
of  later  history  ; how  the  work  of  the  Society  has  gone  on  extending 
till  its  blessed  influences  are  felt  around  the  world.  Bat  even  with 
the  hastiest  glance  over  the  record  of  the  eighty  years  one’s  eye  is 
caught  by  very  significant  items  : 

1850. — “ Beginning  of  Sailors’  Home  in  New  York  City.” 

“Agent  appointed  to  visit  the  lakes.” 

1831.  — “ Origin  of  the  New  Orleans  work.” 

1832.  — “ First  chaplain  sent  to  Sandwich  Islands,  also  to  Havre, 

France.” 

1835. — “Rev.  0.  M.  Johnson  dispatched  to  Brazil.” 

1837. — “Work  begun  in  Cronstadt,  Russia,  Calcutta,  Singapore.” 

I will  simply  read  some  of  the  names  of  places  to  which  from  time 


10 


to  time  the  Society  extended  her  blessed  influence : Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  Cadiz,  Australia,  Gottenburg  and  Stockholm,  Amsterdam,  Can- 
ton, Chile,  Hong  Kong,  San  Francisco,  Callao,  Antwerp,  Shanghai, 
Portland,  Ore.,  Copenhagen,  Hamburg.  And  that  is  only  the  begin- 
ning of  the  list. 

There  is  one  item  that  I notice  for  the  year  1893  : “ Library  No. 
10,000  sent  to  sea.” 

One  quickly  catches  the  trend  of  such  a history.  Here  at  last  was 
an  institution,  destined  to  be  of  world-wide  influence,  and  concerned 
with  the  shipping  of  the  world,  but  whose  foremost  interest  was  to 
be  not  in  the  dead  ship  or  cargo,  but  in  the  living  shipmen  ; not  the 
thing,  but  the  man ; that  by  all  means,  and  at  all  cost,  the  man 
should  be  saved,  body  and  soul,  for  time  and  for  eternity.  Let  them 
save  the  ship  too,  if  they  can,  it  is  worth  saving,  when  you  think 
what  service  it  can  render  humanity ; — but  most  of  all  save  the  man. 
That,  I take  it,  is  the  motto  of  the  American  Seamen’s  Friend  So- 
ciety. And  so  as  Christians  we  may  well  come  together  to-day,  all 
of  us,  whether  or  not  we  have  been  closely  identified  with  this  par- 
ticular Society,  to  celebrate  its  organization,  and  to  thank  God  for 
its  many  years  of  honorable  history.  It  stands  as  one  more  most  en- 
couraging token  of  the  world-wido  progress  of  this  great  Christian 
reform,  the  coming  triumph  of  the  great  Christian  principle,  that 
“the  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment”;  that  the 
man  is  worth  more  than  all  the  things  that  he  can  own  ; that  what- 
ever becomes  of  the  ship  the  one  great  business  of  Christian  society  is 
to  make  sure  that  we  save  the  lives.  That  is  the  meaning  of  our  cole- 
bration  to-day.  Because  of  what  has  been  we  thank  God  and  take 
courage ; and  we  pray  God  that  the  good  work  may  go  on. 


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